Tuesday, February 05, 2013

A proposal to study whether Virginia should adopt its own currency passed the state House of Delegates on Monday....

Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William) has been fighting for the bill for three years as a safeguard against what he believes is a central banking system that has swung out of control. But until Monday, the plan seemed little more than a quixotic quest. The House voted 65 to 32 to approve the measure....

The plan calls for spending $17,440 to create a 10-member commission, which would determine the "need, means and schedule for establishing a metallic-based monetary unit" -- in other words, a return to a gold standard.

It is unclear how Marshall's measure will fare in the Senate. And Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) has said in the past that he does not support the commonwealth printing its own money. But that the bill has made it even this far underscores the depth of distrust among some surrounding the nation's central bank....

Yes, they call him "Sideshow Bob" in Virginia -- but the sideshow has moved to the main stage if his crazy bill passed one house of the GOP-controlled legislature by more than a 2-to-1 margin. You're the clowns, Republicans -- all of you -- if this is mainstream in Virginia.

Actually, it's not all that insane, or unusual. California recently met obligations for a period of time with IOUs, and here at Cascadia we've a number of ongoing expirements in barter currencies: not just local redneck chits but across both state "lines" and state/provencial "borders". Of course, it is Cascadia, where folks tend to be a bit more clear-headed than the rest of the "country".

Ten Bears I see a world of difference between organized grass root barter systems and monkeying around with the legal tender of a country by some state. The latter is born out of ignorance, incompetency and stupidity. The former is a n optional (caveat emptor) compatible sub system and has merit for poor areas.I'm not convinced if Virginia is better named after the 'virgin (hmmm)' Queen of England of the time or the pre pubescent child who inspired the essay about the existence of Father Christmas.

Steve, The problem I have with your blanket condemnation of this well ...time warped individual is that in reality some incest IS consensual. One could speculate this individual's possibly the intellectual progeny of such a system. Well “rape” is by definition NON consensual! But I guess that's 5th grade reasoning two grades higher than he's using. And to think this turkey thinks he's a good argument why the US is “special” his reasoning certainly is..... very special.

My granddaddy was fullof down home wisdom, 'a true son of the South'. He had an old coon dawg like this man. It was as dumb as a stump, made a lot of useless noise, wouldn't learn, my grandadaddy shot it.